What's New | CAPC | Conferences | Newsletters | Useful Websites | Search | Home

NEWS FROM OCLC
Submitted to OLAC for ALA Annual, June 2007
by Jay Weitz


General News

OCLC to Work with Zepheira to Redesign OCLC's PURL Service

OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. and Zepheira, LLC announced that they will work together to re-architect OCLC's Persistent URL (PURL) service to support more effectively the management of a "Web of data". The software developed will be released under an Open Source Software license allowing PURLs and the PURL infrastructure to be used in various applications for public or proprietary use. OCLC and Zepheira are collaborating to extend the open and inclusive community of PURL users. The PURL service has been hosted by OCLC for 12 years and provides persistent, stable World Wide Web addresses for the international library and education community, government, business, non-profit organizations and private citizens. PURLs are Web addresses or Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) that act as permanent identifiers in the face of a dynamic and changing Web infrastructure. Instead of resolving directly to Web resources, PURLs provide a level of indirection that allows the underlying Web addresses of resources to change over time without negatively affecting systems that depend on them. This capability provides continuity of references to network resources that may migrate from machine to machine for business, social, or technical reasons. PURLs grew out of the long involvement of OCLC's Office of Research with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Uniform Resource Identifier working groups. Zepheira will redesign and build the new PURL service during 2007 to support greater flexibility, new features and the scalability to face an increased demand for PURLs. The new service, which upgrades the existing services at , will also be hosted by OCLC. The new PURL software will also be updated to reflect the current understanding of Web architecture as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This new software will provide the ability permanently to identify networked information resources, such as Web documents, as well as non-networked resources such as people, organizations, concepts and scientific data. This capability will represent an important step forward in the adoption of a machine-processable "Web of data" enabled by the Semantic Web. OCLC and Zepheira provide PURLs as a core component of the Internet infrastructure, to increase the flexibility and stability of Web-based applications and services. More information on the PURL service is available on the OCLC PURL Website at <www.purl.org>.

Collections and Technical Services

Connexion Client 2.00 Released in June 2007

Enhancements include: Non-Latin script enhancements include:

OCLC does not expect to discontinue 1.7X until a future release of the Client is available. An upgrade to 2.00 is not required. However, OCLC recommends that users upgrade to version 2.00 so that they will have the most current features available.

WorldCat xISBN Service Enhances Search Results

The WorldCat xISBN service, the OCLC service that supplies International Standard Book Numbers associated with individual intellectual works represented in the WorldCat database, is now available for commercial and high-use applications. The WorldCat xISBN service, which began as an OCLC Research project, is a machine-to-machine service that supplies ISBNs and other information associated with an individual work in WorldCat, the world's richest database for discovery of items held in libraries. It has been a supported service, available at no charge for individual, non-commercial use, since February 2007 and is now also being made available for commercial and high-use applications (more than 500 requests per day) via subscription. The xISBN service helps a user find a resource when an ISBN assigned to any printing or edition of the work is known. Users submit an ISBN to the service to return a list of related ISBNs and selected metadata. ISBNs are related to each other using librarian-cataloged bibliographic records in WorldCat together with an algorithm that implements the FRBR model for information objects that brings together multiple versions of a work. The FRBR model keeps WorldCat users from having to browse numerous records that represent many different manifestations of a book--such as different printings, hardcover or paperback editions, audiobooks or film versions, for example--and brings them together under one record. The WorldCat xISBN service is ideal for Web-enabled search applications, such as library catalogs and online booksellers. Based on associations made in the WorldCat database, xISBN enables an end user to link to information about other versions of a source work. Among the uses of the WorldCat xISBN service: to identify a book from an online bookseller to determine if that book is available at the user's library; to confirm that no alternative versions of a work are available before a library sends an interlibrary loan request; to use a single search to check holdings of all editions of a work before making a selection for acquisition. More information about the WorldCat xISBN service is available on the OCLC WorldCat Website: <http://www.worldcat.org/affiliate/webservices/xisbn/app.jsp>.

Baker & Taylor Records Now Being Added to WorldCat

Baker & Taylor (B&T), the leading supplier of materials to public libraries, is now adding records to WorldCat. Baker & Taylor, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, provides books, music, DVDs, and video games and supports collection management and technical services to libraries around the world. The titles are being added as part of the agreement between Baker & Taylor and OCLC, to partner in providing bibliographic records and expanded technical services to schools and public libraries. B&T records loaded into WorldCat are from two sources: its own cataloging file (containing full and CIP cataloging MARC records from Library of Congress as well as full cataloging MARC records, produced by B&T's MLS Catalogers when there was no LC record) and Baker & Taylor's product file (containing brief non-MARC records used in B&T's Order Processing System). These records are converted to MARC by an OCLC mapping process. Both types of records are then matched against WorldCat records through a batch process. When a record is matched, BTCTA is added to Field 040, subfield $d. This indicates that Field 938 has been added to the matching record and contains Baker & Taylor product data (B&T unique identifier, i.e., book number). No other editing of records occurs as part of this process. When no matching record is identified through the batch process, OCLC adds the B&T record as a new record to WorldCat. This record contains the symbol BTCTA in Field 040, subfields $a and $c. Added product file records are very brief and are coded as abbreviated records (Encoding Level 3). They are not created by or examined by a cataloger. This provides customers using the new B&T/OCLC Cataloging Plus service access to the OCLC number early in the acquisitions workflow. OCLC encourages member libraries who acquire one of these titles to upgrade and replace the record and receive credit on their OCLC bill for upgrading that record. As B&T catalogers are performing cataloging services for customers, they will also be upgrading these records. This is an important and key feature of the B&T / OCLC agreement. In cases of both original records and matches, a 938 field is added to the MARC record that contains the vendor code BTCP. This code is indexed; vendor records are searchable using the vendor information keyword index.

Alliance Entertainment Becomes a WorldCat Cataloging Partner

OCLC welcomes Alliance Entertainment Corporation, a major supplier of music and visual resources, as a new WorldCat Cataloging Partner. With a combined total of more than 335,000 titles, Alliance maintains the largest in-stock catalog of CD titles and DVD titles in the United States, specializing in public and educational libraries. Trading partners include over 10,000 major record labels and movie studios. The Company was named the 2007 Large Wholesaler of the Year by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM). Alliance is a subsidiary of Source Interlink Companies, Inc., (NASDAQ: SORC) a leading marketing, merchandising and fulfillment company of home entertainment products which, in addition to music CDs and DVDs, also distributes magazines and books and provides a range of in-store services to retailers throughout North America. Alliance Entertainment's headquarters is located in Coral Springs, Florida and offers collection development assistance via standing orders, firm orders, and approval plans. Their highly trained staff has in-depth music & video knowledge serving to aid libraries with all of their selection needs.

Return to Table of Contents | Previous Section | Next Section

Last updated: October 13, 2007
http://www.olacinc.org/newsletters/sept07/oclc.html
neumeist@buffalo.edu